With the start of
the 2012 college football season upon us within the next four weeks, certain
things tend to stand out. As I read various media outlets, message boards,
etc., I can’t help but notice the semi-universal tone of some people asking,
“Is Bo Pelini the guy for Nebraska?”
I could understand
this question when the hiring process was going on in 2007. Let’s face it,
Nebraska is not the kind of place where a coordinator (as Pelini had been for
five years beforehand) cuts his teeth, and we’ve seen the results as Pelini (39-16
overall record) has taken some time to acclimate to the endless headaches head
coaches endure.
There are a segment
of Husker fans and former players from the mid-1990s (notably talk show host
Jason Peter) who frequently go back to that time frame when Nebraska went 60-3
from 1993-1997 with three National Championships and four undefeated regular
seasons. While I respect what Peter contributed as a player and he makes some
good points, I am not one of these jock-sniffing Husker fans that says, “You
tell ‘em, Jason!” every time he rants on the radio. You simply cannot compare
the job Pelini currently has today to the mid-90s. Peter played under one of
the greatest and most experienced football minds (Tom Osborne) in history with
one of the most committed staffs beneath him.
Osborne’s system
had been in place for multiple decades and they’d been in the same conference
the entire time. The Huskers had a blend of experience, talent, and
conditioning which enabled that run. Pelini, on the other hand, took over a
program which had utterly collapsed. Not crumbled. Not slumped. Not leaned
slightly to the left. Collapsed. He was given the job of rebuilding a program
and taking it to a national championship, not just the second part. If not for
a few hidden gems like Ndamukong Suh and Prince Amukamara the climb back up
would have been that much steeper.
Nine win seasons may not be as sexy as they used to be, but ask many powerhouse programs around who didn’t hit that mark in recent years. You want consistency? Well that’s a start. I’ll take that over seeing Nebraska become a coaching carousel, where even after you put in a few years with moderate success, you still have no job security. You think Nebraska football is not what it once was now, wait until you have to hire new talent in that atmosphere. See how far it gets you.
There is a segment of Nebraska fans take entitlement to levels that are absurd. So, it’s justifiable to be upset when the team melts in a bowl game, or gets their ears pinned back by programs like Michigan or Wisconsin. Hell, I was a little guilty of it after the 30-13 Capital One Bowl loss to South Carolina but in all seriousness, the starting quarterback for the 1997 team (Scott Frost) was booed at home. So nothing really surprises me about what certain people would say about this program considering this team could run the table and there would probably be people bitching about how they didn’t do it “correctly,” whatever that means.
Nine win seasons may not be as sexy as they used to be, but ask many powerhouse programs around who didn’t hit that mark in recent years. You want consistency? Well that’s a start. I’ll take that over seeing Nebraska become a coaching carousel, where even after you put in a few years with moderate success, you still have no job security. You think Nebraska football is not what it once was now, wait until you have to hire new talent in that atmosphere. See how far it gets you.
There is a segment of Nebraska fans take entitlement to levels that are absurd. So, it’s justifiable to be upset when the team melts in a bowl game, or gets their ears pinned back by programs like Michigan or Wisconsin. Hell, I was a little guilty of it after the 30-13 Capital One Bowl loss to South Carolina but in all seriousness, the starting quarterback for the 1997 team (Scott Frost) was booed at home. So nothing really surprises me about what certain people would say about this program considering this team could run the table and there would probably be people bitching about how they didn’t do it “correctly,” whatever that means.
My question would
be, who better would you get to come here to be our head coach after firing a
coach for winning nine or more games four straight years?
Everyone worth their salt knows it’s very hard to recruit to Nebraska. Urban Meyer has mentioned struggling at Ohio State (because he had it so good at Florida). Fan expectations are unreasonably high. Some of them, anyhow. The “but we are Nebraska” crap has got to stop, and a lot of people need to be more realistic. Nebraska will consistently win 9, 10, 11 games. It’s going to take a special season where both the offense and defense are at the top of the game in talent and experience. Look at the 2009 defense combined with a good offense (yet to be seen) and that will get us a National Championship run. In the mean time being consistently good is how it’s going to be. We can’t recruit well enough right now to just be able to reload, really Alabama, LSU and USC can do that right now.
We haven’t had both offense and defense in the same season yet. I think we are going to be really close this year, which will set us up for a run next year, but that will be dependent on how much quarterback Taylor Martinez improves this season.
Everyone worth their salt knows it’s very hard to recruit to Nebraska. Urban Meyer has mentioned struggling at Ohio State (because he had it so good at Florida). Fan expectations are unreasonably high. Some of them, anyhow. The “but we are Nebraska” crap has got to stop, and a lot of people need to be more realistic. Nebraska will consistently win 9, 10, 11 games. It’s going to take a special season where both the offense and defense are at the top of the game in talent and experience. Look at the 2009 defense combined with a good offense (yet to be seen) and that will get us a National Championship run. In the mean time being consistently good is how it’s going to be. We can’t recruit well enough right now to just be able to reload, really Alabama, LSU and USC can do that right now.
We haven’t had both offense and defense in the same season yet. I think we are going to be really close this year, which will set us up for a run next year, but that will be dependent on how much quarterback Taylor Martinez improves this season.
The Nebraska
entitlement thing is spot on in terms of recent success. We think of Osborne as
this iconic figure who can do no wrong but how did he fare before 1993? He had
Bill Callahan like back to back blowout losses to end 1990 (45-10 to Oklahoma
and 45-21 to Georgia Tech). Before Nebraska became Top ten material, the
Huskers lost seven straight bowl games from 1986-1993, most were not even
competitive.
Pelini has had his
work cut out for him, and the atmosphere of college football nowadays is
remarkably different from what it was in the Osborne era. Pelini took over a
decimated program, full of raw talent recruited by Callahan, who hired a
terrible staff and tried to implement an NFL style offense into a team whose
players were designed to run the option. Then athletic director Steve Pederson
brought the program to a new low with his firing of Frank Solich (after a
nine-win season), making Nebraska a less desireable place to coach. Why do you
think Ohio State and Florida could land Urban Meyer and not Nebraska? Say what
you will about Meyer’s arrogant personality but the man can coach. The
“powerhouse” image had been destroyed at the end of the 2001 season in the Rose
Bowl against Miami, and Nebraska officially entered its free-fall.
After the damage by Callahan, Kevin Cosgrove, and Pederson was done and they were ushered out of town, it was Osborne’s job as athletic director job to find the best replacement. Pelini was the best possible coach that could have come to Nebraska that year, and fans felt they wanted a familiar face after the program had been hijacked by Pederson and Co. Pelini is a good motivator, and with the talent pool left, he was able to produce an elite, championship caliber defense in year two. The only problem is our offense looked like a high school offense. The consistent defense continued into year three, only to let another conference championship slip through our fingers on account of bad game day coaching and a horrible offensive strategy against Oklahoma.
The 2011 defense was a shell of its former self, and was showed to be unprepared for the season, which is completely unacceptable. The embarrassment against Wisconsin on national TV was a game that could have been a close, competitive contest if the coaching and preparation had been able to keep the team in the game. Instead, Nebraska dug itself a hole it could not escape. Then after beating eventual Legends Divison champ Michigan State 24-3, the Huskers seemed destined for the Rose Bowl. They got a reality check the next week against Northwestern (28-25 loss), along with another shelling at Michigan (45-17 loss). The bowl performance was putrid, with every opportunity to put South Carolina away in that game slipping away in the first half, and the lack of effective halftime adjustments after South Carolina had taken the lead on an inexcusable Hail Mary.
Pelini now enters Year No. 5, which means these are all his players, his system has been in place for five years, and the offense is an experienced (even though inconsistent) unit entering year two of a system. There are no more excuses for the crucial mistakes, lackluster performances in big games, and the coaches not being able to get their team to perform consistently on a week to week basis. Without major improvements on both sides of the ball, we are not going to see a Big Ten championship. If Tim Beck can’t get Martinez to perform well as a passer, our offense will again struggle against top-tier defenses. If we can’t seem to get pressure with our front four, or have worsening linebacker play, and a leaky secondary, we’re going to struggle against explosive offenses and be put out of games. That will lead to another (hopefully) nine win season with a couple of embarrassments along the way.
After the damage by Callahan, Kevin Cosgrove, and Pederson was done and they were ushered out of town, it was Osborne’s job as athletic director job to find the best replacement. Pelini was the best possible coach that could have come to Nebraska that year, and fans felt they wanted a familiar face after the program had been hijacked by Pederson and Co. Pelini is a good motivator, and with the talent pool left, he was able to produce an elite, championship caliber defense in year two. The only problem is our offense looked like a high school offense. The consistent defense continued into year three, only to let another conference championship slip through our fingers on account of bad game day coaching and a horrible offensive strategy against Oklahoma.
The 2011 defense was a shell of its former self, and was showed to be unprepared for the season, which is completely unacceptable. The embarrassment against Wisconsin on national TV was a game that could have been a close, competitive contest if the coaching and preparation had been able to keep the team in the game. Instead, Nebraska dug itself a hole it could not escape. Then after beating eventual Legends Divison champ Michigan State 24-3, the Huskers seemed destined for the Rose Bowl. They got a reality check the next week against Northwestern (28-25 loss), along with another shelling at Michigan (45-17 loss). The bowl performance was putrid, with every opportunity to put South Carolina away in that game slipping away in the first half, and the lack of effective halftime adjustments after South Carolina had taken the lead on an inexcusable Hail Mary.
Pelini now enters Year No. 5, which means these are all his players, his system has been in place for five years, and the offense is an experienced (even though inconsistent) unit entering year two of a system. There are no more excuses for the crucial mistakes, lackluster performances in big games, and the coaches not being able to get their team to perform consistently on a week to week basis. Without major improvements on both sides of the ball, we are not going to see a Big Ten championship. If Tim Beck can’t get Martinez to perform well as a passer, our offense will again struggle against top-tier defenses. If we can’t seem to get pressure with our front four, or have worsening linebacker play, and a leaky secondary, we’re going to struggle against explosive offenses and be put out of games. That will lead to another (hopefully) nine win season with a couple of embarrassments along the way.
I'll give him the
next two years to win the conference title before I begin thinking Pelini is
not the right guy for the job. He took a team that was simply atrocious and
turned them into a 9-win-per-year team, which is not an easy task.
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